Heart of Iron
by Razgriz13
Summary: Before being defeated by the crew of "Fury", the Tiger tank crew of "Ghost" were the longest standing Panzer crew in the whole German army. This is the final days of the "Ghost" leading up to the eventual defeat agaisnt of the "Fury".


18th April 1945

Seelow Heights, Germany

"Soviet Infantry front!" Unteroffizier Karl yelled

"Loading H.E. (High Explosive) shell! Gun Ready" Otto yelled as he slammed the shell into the main gun's breech then shut the breech

"Away!" I screamed as I pulled the trigger of the tank

The shell flew through the air and cross the field where the Soviet Infantry were taking cover, and they disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Hell of a shot, Wolfe" Paul yelled

"Target hit! Good kill Wolfe! Get on the next one" Unteroffizier Karl said through his headset as he watched the remaining Soviets charge out from the tree line through his

"Muller get on the radio and tell Heer Lieutenant Shultz that he and his men to move up and get in the fight" Unteroffizier Karl said in as he locked the top hatch of the Tiger

"Roger Unteroffizier, I'm already on it" Muller replied

"Heer Lieutenant your Sappers are clear, get them in the fight" Muller said as he got on his headset to Heer Lieutenant Shultz

"Many thanks 'Ghost' crew, we got it from here" the grizzled voice of the Lieutenant replied back

The battle harden Combat Engineers and Infantrymen charged out from behind our tiger tank and charged the Soviet to hold back the Soviet offensive, we stayed back in the tree line and continued to provide suppressing fire on the advancing Soviet infantry and Armor.

"Ghost crew this is Unteroffizier Albin, Heer Lieutenant Shultz is dead! The Soviets advance is too strong we need support now!" our radio came alive with the sounds of screams and gunfire

"Muller get the rest of Panzers up here now! Otto load another shell! Wolfe aim that turret to our three" Unteroffizier Karl yelled as he popped open the top hatch.

"Contact Soviet IS 2 in the open to our 2'o clock!" Unteroffizier. Karl yelled as he watched it emerge from the tree line in the distance through his binoculars

"AP shell loaded" Otto yelled as he closed the breech of the main gun

"Got him in my sight he's about 400 meters out" I yelled

"Shoot that son of bitch before he see's us! Paul screamed up at me

"Send it Wolfe" Unteroffizier Karl yelled to me

"Shell away" I screamed as I fired the Tiger's main gun the powerful 88mm

I watched the shell fly across the field and just falling short of the target. This made my heart race as I knew that have mere second before that Soviet IS 2 found our location in the tree line and rip us too shreds.

"Missed! Wolfe bring it up three and to the right four" Karl yelled over his headset

"Fuck!" Paul yelled as he seat in his driver seat helpless

"Correcting! Correcting!" I yelled as I adjusted my sights

"Otto another AP shell now!" Muller yelled at him as he handed him to load it

"Loading…Loaded!" Otto yelled as he loaded another shell into the breech

"Shoot him now!" Paul yelled looking back me from his driver seat

"Away" I yelled

This time the shell flew out and destroyed the Soviet IS 2, it burst in flames and the crew jumped out and ran for the tree line behind them before getting cut down by either or us or their own. Either way that's one less Soviet tank chasing us. We all cheered and celebrated the tanks death but it's short lived as we are ordered to fall back to support another part of Seelow. Knowing that if we were too leave the Soviets would take this position, but since this was coming from higher ups we had no choice but too fall back. We all popped our hatches as we rode down some muddy bombed out stretch of land, the convoy had take pop shots here and there but nothing crazy. We carried some of the Sappers on "Ghost's" hull and I looked back at them and they all were battle weary and I understood their frustration about falling back. This is our home and all of us who put everything into this war understand that falling back doesn't win a war. I then turned to Karl he lit a cigar and then looked at me and gave me a reassuring smile; I just gave him a half assed node. Otto looked at me and passed me a cigarette, I refused it. It was probably one of those nasty Soviet ones that taste like it was marinated in oil, I can't stand those things. Over the headset Paul and Muller were auguring about whatever they felt like auguring about this hour. I looked at the scared landscape and took a second to reflect about everything we been through.

My crew and I started this war as a bunch of inexperienced group of misfits to being one of Germany's longest lasting crew in probably in the whole Wehrmacht. We were given the nickname of "Ghost" during the invasion of France and because of the loss of our first Panzer. The 7th Panzer Division moved so quickly that the French didn't even have time react to it and quickly we deviated all of their armor support and Infantry until we made our way to Paris. When I first step foot into our first Panzer tank Unteroffizier Karl said to me

"If you want to make it through this war, you have to become unfeeling and apathetic to your surroundings no matter how bad things get out there. It's the only way you'll remain yourself after this is all over." His father a veteran of the Great War had told him that before he went off too Poland. I remember he also told me that his father suffered from night terrors. This is why I don't dwell on the lives I have taken, to retain who I am when this war is over.

Unteroffiziers Karl was our Senior NCO and the only one the five us that has made it this far in the war as he was among the first to fight in the Invasion of Poland. He has been denied promotions so many times for the sole fact that he had family who were not Aryan. Well I can't say I'm any better only a Unteroffizier as well but denied any kind of promotions because someone in my blood was jewish. Actually the whole crew has been denied for one bullshit reason or another but we all have been decorated so much for our actions, we all at one point or another earned our Iron Cross. We have been together since we first got in our first Panzer III and invaded France together in 1940, then Rommel himself picked us for his Afrika Korps as we proved to get his attention from for the amount of valor we showed on the battlefield.

We then found ourselves in Tobruk in 1941 were we fought the British in the dunes of the desert it's also were we suffered our first defeat. We got our revenge at Battleaxe where we first faced the British's Crusader tank and were we the sole surviving crew in our platoon, which was probably the reason we failed at both battles at El Alamein. We had one last victory in North Africa at the Kasserine Pass as we held back at least two companies of American Infantry and completely devastated the American's M3 Stuart tanks. After that we were taken out of North Africa and sent to the Eastern Front were we back with the 7th Panzer Division, we didn't do too much there we never really encountered the Soviets there. The only time we actually fought were small resistance groups but most of the time they were under armed with only rifles and grenades. With only being on the Eastern front for about three or so months we found ourselves in France in Early 1944. Were we participated in holding the beachhead from the Americans and later fighting them in land. It was St. Lo were we lost our Panzer III during the battle and fought our way back to friendly lines where we received our Tiger. We did hit and run missions with the 2nd SS Panzer Division boys in Holland from then on till we moved into Belgium that November. Where we were wrapped up to the 1st SS Panzer Division, we did manly suicide charges to the American lines and took part in the failed defense of Foy. We fell back to the Fatherland as the Soviets were on our doorstep so from then on we have been fighting the Soviets, this is also were tasked out to the 9th Army to defend the Fatherland. To which we are now defending ourselves from the Red Horde that is in front of us and we are losing.

20th April 1945

Near Halbe, Germany

Ghost crew now part of the 12th Army

"Stop I don't want one" I said to Otto as he kept trying to get me to try the Soviet cigarette

"Come on, you liked them back Russia" Otto said with a smile

"That's because E Company smoked all of our smokes and all we had are those shitty Soviet smokes" Paul chimed in

"What happen to those guys, James Hahn from E Company still owned me for saving him from that Soviet prostitute that tried to kill him" Muller asked lighting up one of the Soviet cigarettes

"Last I heard from them they were moved too Anzio right before we left to Normandy" I explain to everyone

"Shit, they didn't make did they" Paul asked in a solemn voice

"I'm not sure Paul, E Company never ran from a fight so they probably held their ground till the Americans over ran them" I explain too everyone as I grabbed one of Otto's cigarettes

"They were all really good guys" Otto said quickly as he laid down and puffed on his cigarette

"God I forgot why I hated these thing" I coughed out as the veil taste of the Soviet cigarette burned my mouth

"The British had good smokes, remember the ones I found on that officer back in Tobruk" Paul said with a smile on his face

"I don't know how any of you smoked in North Africa? We didn't wear cloths in the Panzer all we had was our headsets and pants. My skin burned in the shade while you guys burned your lungs in the sun, I never understood that" Otto laughed as he wiped some sweat from his forehead

"No, you know who had good smokes the Americans, when we found in that abandon supply truck" Muller added

"It wasn't abandon" I said to Muller

"Yes it was Wolfe" Muller answered back

"You unload your 34 in to that poor driver" Paul added in

"Like I said abandoned" Muller laughed

"But no really the American smokes were actually really good but you can't beat a good German smoke" I said still coughing up my cigarette

As we hung out by the Tiger tank and continued to remember all the good times, I had noticed that Karl was coming back from Wachtmeister Panzer with a rather frustrated look on his the same look he had when we were told that we had to leave the western front and fall back to here.

"So is it true?" I asked Karl as I ran up too him

"Is what true?" Muller and Paul asked

"Tell them Unteroffizier" Otto said

"We are to surrender to the Americans across the Elbe River and our mission is no longer defending the Berlin, our new mission is to get these civilians away from the Reds" Karl explained

"Where did this 'new' mission come from?" Muller asked

"From General der Panzertruppe Wenck himself, his letter sent out to all of us 'It's not about Berlin any more, it's not about the Reich anymore.'"Karl said as he looked sobering at all of us

"Is it almost over?" I asked

"That is where it gets a bit complicated, I don't intend to give up my home to foreigners that we fought for almost five years now and I know you all don't want to either." Karl continued and we all shock our heads

"So we are attaching ourselves to the 1st SS Panzer boys again and going to keep fighting until we die or we win this war. But first we need to get these 9th and 12th Army with civilians to Elbe River to the Americans" Karl continued

"We'll we better start moving or the Soviets are going to be on top of us" I said

"We all should get some rest before we move out boys" Karl said as he climb into Ghost

I climbed in my gunner hatch and fell asleep as well and slowly slipped off to sleep.

"Unteroffizier we're out of ammo and I've lost all hydraulic pressure!" I yelled to Karl in panic as the American were swarming into the city square

"I lost all controls Unteroffizier! She's dead we got to get the fuck out" Paul yelled

"I'm going too run out of 34 ammo in a second here if we don't act now Unteroffizier" Muller yelled as he fired away at the incoming Americans

"Karl what the fuck do we do!?" I yelled at him

"We are leaving the Panzer! Get out now!" Karl yelled at all of us

I grabbed my MP44 loaded a magazine and held my breath as I opened up the hatch of the Panzer; I was met with a hail of gun fire. Somehow I was able make jump off the Panzer and low crawl to a sand bag barrier were some of the SS Infantry was doing their best to hold back the Americans, they had to a radio setup with another Panzer tank I quickly grabbed it and handed it too Karl as he sled in to cover with me.

"Muller! Paul! Suppressing fire as I get Roth on the line" Karl commanded to the two of them

"Roth! Roth we need to fall back" Karl yelled into the radio over the heavy gunfire

"Karl we can't do that our order is to hold 's square or die here" Roth replied back

" is loss Roth if we do not leave we are all dead" I yelled into the radio as I grabbed it from Karl's hands

Karl grabbed it back from me and continued to yell into the radio over the heavy gunfire, I popped my head up for a second and a round grazed my shoulder. I fell over in pain and screamed at the top of my lungs this is the first time I ever felt like I won't make it out. Even back in North Africa when we went up against our first tank I wasn't this scared. The machine gunners that were holding the line behind the sandbags fell as they were gunned down by the advancing American Infantry; I looked at Karl and noticed they were charging at him as he continued to yell into the radio.

"Karl!" I yelled as I grabbed one of the American soldiers and wrestled him to the ground

Karl quickly reacted as he grabbed his Luger dropped the other two soldiers and grabbed one of the dead SS soldiers Sturmgewehr and began too fire back. The soldier I had grab and I wrestled on the ground, he did everything in his power to try to get me off him, he went for my eyes and out instinct I head butted him and that left him open for me to beat him to death. I started at the young boy I had just killed and for that second I was no longer apathetic to the killing, I had killed him with my own hands. I just looked into his eyes and they looked back as if he was saying "help me", Karl had grabbed my shoulder and yelled my name over and over again but I was just looking in his eyes.

"WOLFE" Karl screamed into my ear

My eyes shot open and I sat up and hit my head on the side of the Tiger tank and fell back down holding my head in pain.

"You're dreaming about France again, Wolfe. It's not that kid again is it" Karl asked

I just nodded my head as I went to wake up the guys

"It's always about the kid" I said to Karl as I shook Otto awake

21st April 1945

Near Elbe River, Germany

We rode on another stretch of scared land as we closed in on the Elbe river, this time instead of the Sappers riding with us we had Thomas a young boy who was drafted when the Soviets invaded. Thomas is no older then twelve but the boy has gone through so much already, losing his father early on in the war and losing his mother to an air raid over his town. He's lived with his uncle for a time before the Soviets came through and murdered the whole place. Poor kid barley made it out, he been spending a lot of time with us, he also looks up to Karl as a surrogate father almost as he always holding his hand or asking him for help with everything.

"Paul I need you take a left at the fork in the road" Karl said of his headset

"Roger Unteroffizier" Paul complied

"Otto load an H.E. shell I feel a ambush" Karl commanded

"Shell loaded Unteroffizier" Otto replied over his headset

What was left of us was about five tanks in the rear and apparently there was a massive Soviet armor battalion heading our way. As we continue on we start talking heavy fire

"Ambush!" the radio screamed in our ears

"Thomas! Grab the Panzerfaust!" Karl yelled at the young boy

"Contact 300 meters out! Soviet Medium armored T-34 to our eleven" Paul yelled

"H.E. Shell is already loaded" Otto yelled

"Away" I yelled as fired at him

"Too high! Wolfe you're high bring it down two and right three" Karl yelled the adjustments to me

"Roger! I'm already on it" I yelled as I made the corrections

"H.E. Shell loaded" Otto yelled

"Away" I screamed

"Direct hit Wolfe, they're burning! Wait Infantry in the open, light them up" Karl yelled as he grabbed his Sturmgewehr raised the hatch and started engaging the infantry that had infiltrated our line

Thomas had grabbed the Panzerfaust and laid down behind some tree's and fired it at the incoming Soviet troops. The young boy scored a direct hit on a troop truck some of the Soviets coming in.

"The kid takes after well you pretty good Unteroffizier" Muller said through headset

"Shut up and keep shooting" Paul yelled at Muller next too him

"Wolfe! Muller! Light them up with the MG34 man, come on" Paul yelled up at me from the driver seat

I got about a dozen soldiers in my sights some engulfed in flames from their vehicle being hit some stubbing away. They were cut down by our guns it didn't matter to us, it was easy either we kill them or they kill us.

"Karl! We lost Heer Lieutenant Walliser and the Wachtmeister, we are lead element now" Muller said as he listens to the radio traffic

"Okay, Muller put me on all nets" Karl demanded

"On it Unteroffizier. Okay you're good" Muller said as he transmitted us to all elements

"All remaining Panzer elements this is 'Ghost', I'm lead element now follow me we must hold the line here so the civilians and wounded can get to safety first. If we don't hold here their going to kill all the civilians, the children, the women, the old, the wounded they are depending on us" Unteroffizier Karl said as he assumed command

"We are with you 'Ghost'"

"Loud and Clear 'Ghost'"

"Got it 'Ghost'"

"Got a full load of hardcore Fallschirmjägers that have been waiting to kick some ass 'Ghost'"

"Okay guys let's bring it to Reds. For the Fatherland boys!" Unteroffizier. Karl yelled he closed his hatch

"Paul advance forward, Muller check comms and reload your MG34, Otto load H.E. shell, Wolfe steady that aim we're are going to need it"


End file.
